On September 16, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) will highlight the Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal at a panel event held in collaboration with IFPRI, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Secretariat, the European Commission, and the Pan African Farmers Association (PAFO).
The event will focus on how improved data can be a key tool in agricultural growth and transformation in Africa. The amount of data available has exploded in recent years, offering exciting opportunities to develop innovative products and services to spur growth and reduce poverty. The FSP-SSA brings together this plethora of data for Africa south of the Sahara, making it easily accessible to policymakers, development professionals, and researchers.
In addition to a presentation of the main features of the FSP-SSA, the panel will also bring together various perspectives about the debate on data use for agricultural transformation. Topics will include: supporting data generation, use, and dissemination for food security, presented by Jean-Pierre Halkin (Head of the EC’s Unit for Rural Development, Food Security, and Nutrition); how better data use can improve countries’ resilience in times of food crisis or shock, presented by Maximo Torero (Division Director of IFPRI’s Markets, Trade and Institutions Division); the benefits of open data for agriculture, presented by Chris Addison (Senior Coordinator of Knowledge Management at CTA); the role of mobile phone applications in agriculture, presented by Ben Addom (ICT4D Programme Coordinator at CTA); and how farmers’ organizations can contribute to data-driven farming, presented by Elisabeth Atangana (President of PROPAC), Ishmael Sunga (CEO of SACAU), Ousseini Ouedraogo (Executive Secretary of ROPPA), and Fatma Ben Rejeb (CEO of the Pan African Farmer’s Organization).
The FSP-SSA team will also discuss plans to increase multi-stakeholder collaboration through on-line and in-country policy dialogues designed to increase the generation and use of data, especially among farmers’ organizations.
You can follow live tweeting of the event by following @ ctabrussels and watch the panel event via livestream on the event website.